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Toad Ranks Interdimensional Cable
"Rixty Minutes" and, to a lesser extent, "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate" have exposed us all to a wide variety of zany, wacky characters and situations. But which of these TV shows is actually the best? Which ones would I actively go out of my way to watch in real life, if any? Find out all the answers to these burning questions if/when I finish this ranking. To Be Ranked Movie About Guy Eating Shit Shmlo's the Shmloss? Quick Mysteries Ants-In-My-Eyes Johnson Ad Sneezy XL Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers Who Are Just Regular Brothers Running In A Van From An Asteroid And All Sorts Of Things The Movie (aka Two Brothers) Ball Fondlers Alternate Dimension Saturday Night Live Real Fake Doors Gazorpazorpfield Trunk People Strawberry Smiggles Commercial Turbulent Juice Baby Legs Last Will and Testimeow: Weekend at Dead Cat Lady's House II Man vs. Car Eyeholes Commercial How Did I Get Here? Jan Quadrant Vincent 16 The Adventures of Stealy Funny Songs Lil' Bits Michael and Pichael Thompson How They Do It: Plumbuses Personal Space Octopus Man Butthole Ice Cream Parlor #27: How Did I Get Here? There's barely even a joke here. A woman is in the doctor's office and is then transported to some random place and asks how she got there. I mean, is there something I'm missing? Her face being deformed is mildly funny but also like... has nothing to do with anything else. And teleportation isn't even a funny sci-fi trope, it's just a sci-fi trope. I want to be an Interdimensional Cable II truther and tell people that overall as an episode it's #NotThatBad, but when half the sketches that make up the episode are shit like this it's pretty hard. #26: Funny Songs More phoned-in garbage from Interdimensional Cable 2. Once again, it's a relatively mundane activity (a comedy routine) but at the end it just gets really gory and the guy dies and so on and so forth. The thing about this shock value that Roiland has included in like 4 different interdimensional cable sketches is that it's not shocking if all of them end the same. With Strawberry Smiggles, it was novel. But like... see, even look at Unbelievable Tales. Sure, depraved shit happens all through the video, but at least it's all unique so you have no idea what's coming next. Meanwhile, there's nothing here to differentiate Funny Songs from anything else that happens on interdimensional cable. Demons appearing and sucking someone's soul out legit already happened in a far funnier sketch. I like to think that this one was recorded near the end of the session, Roiland was probably drunk and feeling shitty and wanted to go to bed, and he just shat out this one last one. I mean, it's pretty telling that this one only has 100k views on YouTube and most interdimensional cable sketches have 1 million+. #25: Man vs. Car This is one of the only ones I feel actively uncomfortable viewing - there's a shitload of blood and gore, and that really only works in very specific scenarios but just makes me queasy otherwise (looking at you, Solenya). And the premise isn't even that wacky? Like after seeing some of the stuff from Rixty Minutes, this seems very subdued. Plus, it has a muted color palette which doesn't help matters, and it could plausibly take place on Earth so that ruins most of the fun. It's just like... okay, a car runs over a guy and splatters his guts everywhere. It's kinda funny that this is something people seemed overjoyed at viewing, but not enough to do it any big favors. As you'll see in this ranking, gratuitous gore is only good when it's accentuating already dumb/funny stuff as opposed to when it's carrying an entire segment. Sometimes less is more, Roiland. #24: Personal Space This one might be a fan favorite, but it's never clicked with me and I'm actually glad to be eliminating it this early. I do like how it's such a drawn-out, pointless routine and there's so much buildup just for the guy just going and tearing his skin off, but that doesn't change the fact that the guy... tears his skin off, just for the sake of gory shock value! Again! It's legitimately uncomfortable to watch, and that's probably just me but I can't get through it. I also hate that Roiland is doing the exact same voice in this one as he is in every single other IC2 sketch - okay, yeah, he can only do like 3 voices total, but he doesn't even ''try ''to spice things up in this one. Rick's reaction ("What an asshole!") is genuinely funny though, as is the random alien in the back mimicking the host's movements. Also notable: the YouTube video for this features a comment by Jon Sudano. #23: Shmlo's the Shmloss? First Rixty Minutes sketch falls?! This is actually pretty damn funny, but that doesn't change the fact that it's like 15 seconds long and, as Mr. Sanchez said, "wow, that actually got old fast." And as far as 15-second long clips used as exposition for the entire existence of interdimensional cable go, it's easily beaten by one other thing. #22: Quick Mysteries Another quick (heh) gimmick that's funny, but just kinda exists for a second and is over. I actually think there's some value in this one in terms of creativity, and also unlike most of the other sketches this one doesn't really seem that improvised. It's cohesive, the plot actually makes sense, there's no weird Roiland stuttering or laughing off-cue, which is different... but also makes it mildly forgettable. #21: Butthole Ice Cream Parlor The first time I saw this one I actually belly-snorted, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone considering my propensity to think lowbrow toilet humor is far, far funnier than it is. Just the way that he says "Hey, how's it going? This is my butthole," pauses for like a solid second, then says "...ice cream parlor" is good enough for me. And this is the first line to happen after Jerry gets gunned down 57 times or something, and it's such a quality whiplash in tone. Alas, this is barely 15 seconds long, and that's the peak of it. "Just like you're back home" is also a solid line. Are there butthole ice cream parlors back home? Dear god, I wish there were. This one begs some questions too, and those are always the best kinds of interdimensional shows - are the buttholes sentient? Do they belong to anything? Are they just robotic simulations of buttholes, or are there people with their asses pressed against the wall (a "Pressed Ham") shitting out ice cream 24/7 for the sake of the customers? Either way, that chocolate ice cream looks suspiciously like diarrhea, so I'm inclined to believe it's the latter. Yummy yummy yummy! #20: Trunk People It's easy to forget that this one exists, because it's... weird. I'd say probably one of the weirdest ones in Rixty Minutes, just because of how pointless the entire thing is. It's obviously supposed to be some sort of allegory for gay marriage, but the humor comes from the fact that it's obviously half-assedly improvised (just like... well, basically everything else). There's like 2-3 people speaking at once in certain points of it, or maybe just Roiland doing three different (or three very similar) voices layered all at once - then once Ryan Ridley pops up, doing the only voice he can do, and starts talking about Michael Denny and the Denny Singers, that's when I just get completely lost. "Paid for by...... trunk people" at the end is just the icing on the cake. In a series of really bad improv sketches, this one is one of the objective worst, but that just makes it funnier. #19: Sneezy XL This one's obviously filler, and not all that funny or notable, but I like it for a couple of arbitrary reasons - first of all, the idea of a car with a sneeze for a horn is so unbelievably stupid that it'd probably sell really well nowadays. Also, the classical music in the background is a nice touch, and the visuals actually look genuinely pretty? He's driving through some gorgeous coastal Italian-looking town and the aesthetic is to die for. And finally, when the driver gets out of the car and he's this tiny guy with the CLASSIC Roiland voice (it basically sounds like Mr. Poopybutthole and Noob Noob) and says "uhhh I'm Mr. Sneezy.... achoo!", I giggle every time. #18: Baby Legs This one might be a fan favorite? So... sorry. Baby Legs has some innate humor just in the fact that it's very self-explanatory and the gimmick is so dumb that it just straight-up works. The "criminal" just saying "ohhhhh fuck I'm the killer I'm runnin" in literally Rick Sanchez's exact voice, combined with the novelty of Baby Legs's sound he makes while he's running and the fact that he takes the time to point out that that's the sound that he makes while he's running, makes a pretty funny sketch. When I watch Interdimensional Cable, though, I want REALLY wacky shenanigans - Baby Legs is certainly wacky, yes. But just plain old wacky can't cut it at this point in the ranking, shit's getting serious. #17: Octopus Man I don't know if anything else in my Rick & Morty viewing experience will ever top the sheer amount of confusion I went through when watching this monstrosity. If my memory serves, Octopus Man was the last sketch shown in Interdimensional Cable 2, and they certainly ended on a high note. For one, Roiland sounds BLASTED here. Not slightly tipsy like most of the other sketches, there's not just one little giggle at the end or anything, he's just losing his shit the entire time. For that reason, the video doesn't even attempt to have an actual plot or anything but that obviously makes it as good as it is. The animation almost makes even less sense than the dialogue too - who's the scary-looking scar-faced guy driving the car? Why does he let Octopus Man in and yet not say a single word? When Octopus Man runs out and casually just shanks 2 random passersby why does he not do anything? Was it all part of his diabolical plan? The ending of this one really is the best part, if that's the last Interdimensional Cable episode we're gonna get I have no issues with Octopus Man being its final hurrah. #16: Jan Quadrant Vincent 16 It was completely accidental that this ended up being #16 on the list. But anyway, some may think Jan Quadrant Vincent 16 is just an inferior Two Brothers - to which I say... well, it kinda is, but that doesn't mean it's without its positives! First off, I genuinely had no idea who Jan Michael Vincent was when I saw this, which is the entire point of the sketch, really. A forgotten action star from the '80s starring in a post-apocalyptic thriller is an idea so out there in such a specific way that it almost seems more Harmonesque than Roiland. Speaking of Roiland, I wish every single voice in this trailer wasn't done by him, because I know it's supposed to be comedy but seeing all this cool, sleek animation juxtaposed with his squeaky, shaky voice makes me more let down than anything else. The best part of this one is easily "This JANuary" - but Morty's reaction is also pretty funny, especially due to Beth's death glare and the fact that that too was very obviously improvised. The best sketches are easily the ones that the characters actually react to in funny ways. #15: Movie About A Guy Eating Shit Plot-wise, this is easily Rixty Minutes' magnum opus. The characters are developed and multi-dimensional, there's backstory and character building in every line, and just the fact that director Justin Roiland was able to create a plot this layered, this compelling in a matter of seconds - truly commendable. I really hope this one gets greenlit and turned into an actual film (maybe Daniel Day-Lewis can come out of retirement just to star in it?) because there's so much potential. That aside, I don't care if people think this is placed too high, it's a well-documented fact that toilet humor is probably my favorite kind of humor (if you're wondering why I'm like this, go check out my father's blog). I seem to have that in common with Roiland - for some reason, eating shit is a recurring joke in not just Rick & Morty but his earlier shorts as well, between Lil' Jeremiah's mom, Doofus Rick's alleged favorite pastime, and of course Mr. Goldenfold's "How long have you all been eating poop?" (which, I hate to say it, was probably the line that made me laugh the hardest in the entire series). So really, this just appeals to my most juvenile senses. It's funny to think of what the movie even consists of - like, is the first half hour just Glenn eating shit (that happens to be purple for some reason)? That bowl seems pretty massive, and it looks like he's already made some progress. So that can't have been the opening scene. And of course, there's the fact that the dramatic plot twist is a woman, who I can only assume is his mother, coming in and telling him he's been given a court order that says he can't eat shit anymore. The scare chord really makes things as suspenseful as possible. I wish we could learn what happened to Glenn after that, I for one am dying to know, but I guess I never will. It's tantalizing. Give the people what they want, Roiland!